Thursday, October 16, 2008

Tulane Cancer Center- Thurs, 10-16

TULANE CANCER CENTER- Thursday, October 16, 2008

Left home a little after 8 am.

Met with Dr. Safah at 11:30 am.

I gave her all of the VA Hospital's findings. (Before we left her office, she had

bloodwork done to check his Prostate and his Thyroid). It pleased us that she

was impressed with the VA bloodwork report. She thought that it was quite

thorough.

Unfortunately, the CT SCAN from a couple of weeks ago show a "LYTIC

LESION" (TUMOR) on his Upper Left Back.

The original x-ray showed a problem on the front rib, but nothing showed up on the CT Scan. 

She said that this tumor was to be expected....this is what happens with

Multiple Myeloma..... Plasma Cells multiply and take over bone marrow,

eventually eating-away at the bone.  She wasn't surprised at all, and told us that this is a normal ocurrance with MM.

On a positive note, the "Markers of Myeloma Activity" were good. She was

happy about this.

His blood is a little thin, so we'll be continuing with the Coumadin, but quitting

the nightly aspirin.

She told us that Dom's original Oncologist in Slidell, LA (who referred us to

her) might be miffed that we were coming to her for follow-up visits. We told

her that if she'd have us, we wanted to stick with her. She's the "boss". She

was fine with that.

We also explained that the only reason we were going to the VA Hospital in

Biloxi was for the free medication..... that didn't faze her a bit.....she has alot of patients doing the same thing.  We reallyreally like this Doc.

So, she told us to kill an hour and report to the INFUSION ROOM for some

medication.

Hours later *pouting* they called him in for a Flu Shot, and then eventually

hooked him up to an IV and administered "AREDIA" which should stop the

growth of his tumor. This was a TWO HOUR procedure.

Nanette went out for a few smoke breaks, took a walk, and decided that this

area of New Orleans was pretty creepy. (On the other hand, it's probably a

good thing that Tulane isn't within walking distance of the French Quarter!!!)

Didn't get out of there until almost 5pm, hit rush hour, and was delighted to

get home in time for Survivor!

Supposedly, we won't have to go back to see Dr. Safah and have another

infusion of Aredia until the 13th of November. (Although, I'll bet that she'll be sending us to his

Urologist in our very near future)   This was another LONG, LONG day.

I don't understand why this entry is double-spaced-  have tried to fix this without any luck.  Sorry, my friends and family.    

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